Merry Christmas Everyone!
With it being Christmas I thought I would use today to share a true Christmas story. When I was younger I travelled and had lot of adventures on the way. These adventures were often exhilarating, sometimes scary and occasionally just a bit strange. Even from time to time I didn't even need to go anywhere to have a strange encounter. Some of you may recall the story of when I ended up helping the police catch a horse that had escaped and was running down the street.
Anyway it was Christmas 1995 and I found myself living in the small town of Rreshen in northern Albania. I was working for a charity / NGO. During the summer months the number of volunteers expanded massively when we were running children's camps and other activities which would often include renovation or aid projects for example in 1994 extensive renovations were made to one of the wings of the local hospital), but now it was winter the team had been reduced down to a skeleton team of just a few of us, although we had invited other team members from our other bases located in Fushe-Arrez and Fushe-Lure. Our Albanian employees had all gone home for Christmas.
In those days very little was available in Rreshen so our Christmas really started a few days earlier when we all piled into a Land Rover (Defender 110 not pictured above, we actually had one very similar to the one in the picture above which is a Series III only it was a van type and had the longer wheelbase) and headed off to Tirana for the day. It was a rainy day but Tirana days were always a nice break from the normal routine and I remember it fondly as a day of joy and laughter although some part of the day was spent going off on our own so we could buy each other Christmas presents. Another rare treat that came from a visit to Tirana was that we all met for a team meal in The Stephen Centre restaurant before heading back. What made the Stephen Centre so special was that it was a truly western restaurant and almost certainly the only one in the country at the time. Attached to the Stephen Centre complex is a bookshop and I remember even buying a cassette from there that had been recorded by a friend of mine who is a professional musician.
Such a small world!
We were all in holiday mode so we didn't have to get up particularly early and other than keeping the base running with its regular tasks, including filling the water tanks, it was pretty much a holiday time with lots of free time on our hands. Some of us used it to visit local Albanian friends and all the time the base was being transformed by the magic of Christmas.
I recall listening to some carols on Christmas Eve in our living room which was large and seemingly cold most of the winter. After Christmas we actually moved our living room to a smaller room because it had got so cold. Electricity supplies were erratic and often there wasn't enough power even when it was on. It wasn't unknown for us to have to turn all the lights and heaters off so we could cook the dinner and I even recall one occasion when we ate outside with snow on the ground because it was warmer than inside the building. However on Christmas Eve, whether it was by candlelight or electricity starved electric lights the ambiance was subdued and it only added to the atmosphere. There was such a sense of togetherness and peace among us and it still stands out to this very day for this very reason.
Christmas Day dawned and after a simple breakfast we exchanged presents and spent some time together. Rachel, one of the team members, was in the process of producing a Christmas miracle because despite the limitations of what was available (although a few bits like custard and Christmas pudding had arrived from England) she was putting together a perfect Christmas turkey dinner complete with all of the trimmings and then the first disaster struck.
Things were cooking along very nicely when suddenly the power failed. Vegetables were happily boiling away on the cooking gas hobs but the electric oven was worse than useless. Tim, the base leader, had to improvise and do so quickly for the risk of Christmas dinner being ruined. He fired up the brick built barbecue and everything that wasn't being boiled was finished off outside in an area that really was designed for the winter. It was a bitingly cold day but probably only just below freezing.
Somehow between Tim's inventiveness and Rachel's culinary skills dinner was saved and believe me it was good, very good!
Dinner finished we spent the rest of the afternoon together and the weather was getting steadily worse. While rain rattled on the tin roof above we played games together and were just enjoying the time whether we were playing chess or Monopoly or whatever else we had to hand. Then the second disaster struck.
It started with a seepage. We were all on one side of the room when suddenly somebody noticed water coming into the room from the opposite side. It seemed to be coming in where the wall met the floor. So it was time for action stations.
The fortunate thing was that this wasn't something we hadn't faced before. Behind the building is a whole load of land that drains into a small area just behind our complex. Throughout the summer occasional summer storms (and one particularly bad one that lasted more than 2 days) had threatened to overwhelm our building with a deluge and we had countered it with varying degrees of success. One thing we had done to remedy the problem was to dig a shallow ditch in front of the building. With the ditch in place we hadn't experienced a flood event since September so we thought it was the end of our water problem.
Action stations meant we knew exactly what to do.
While some grabbed an assortment of brushes and others pulled carpets back and tried to get ahead of the water I took a spade and went outside to the ditch. I can't remember but I think Tim and / or Tom joined me. The problem was that the ditch had silted up over the last three months or so and now because of the contours it had produced it was directing water inside the building instead of away.
In seconds I was almost knee deep in frigid water and spading out piles of sandy silt and redirecting the water. I worked fast and really felt like we were collectively saving Christmas. It only took about ten minutes - or so it seemed - but soon the water was running again as a torrent passed the building. In the meantime somehow the rest of the team had saved everything inside by the fast actions of all of us.
It truly was a Christmas miracle and even more so because one of us managed to spot it when it was only just seeping.
On another note Christmas 1995 marked a landmark for me as it was my first Christmas away from home and due to a past tragedy it marked a break from the past and a change and a kind of reset that enabled me to start enjoying Christmas again.
It as strange and unusual but Christmas 1995 was one of the most important Christmases of my life.
Wishing you all a fantastic day!
